Crypto Mining with Raspberry PI?????

[scs_789]

So I was having a discussion about crypto mining the other day, and myself and another person came upon an interesting thought.  Given cryptomining, and its flaws (startup cost, heat production, electric bills, etc), we were wondering if it would be possible/worth it to take the same budget for a GPU rig and use it for a bunch of Raspberry Pi cards, which we would then use for less intense cryptomining. 

 

Now, understandably the Raspberry Pi would be far less powerful on a 1:1 scale, but assuming someone had a set budget, could they buy enough raspberry pi to compete with a GPU rig?

Basically I am thinking this:

Given Startup Budget: x
Cost of Pi : a

Cost of GPU : b
Number of Pi = x/a
Number of GPU = x/b

 

^Simple enough to google the prices and figure out you how many pi's you can get for the price of a gpu rig.  Baby stuff.  I can do this math, I just havent yet because I am lazy (And don't really know what GPU rig I should use for this hypothetical).  The part where I really get stuck is the math to find out which one is more profitable.

Hashrate : hashrate of pi * (x/a) = P    OR    hashrate of GPU * h(x/b) = G

 

I have set the above hashrate equal to a variable just so i dont have to type out "the hashrate of...." anymore

 

Now for running cost (I use $0.12 per kwH, as per the national average, Raspberry Model B for consumption at .0035kwh)

0.12 * .0035 = $ .00042 an hour

.00042 * 24 * 30 =  $ 0.30/month

 

.3 * (x/a) = operating cost of raspberry pi rig

 

 

^ A similar operation would be needed to determine the operating cost of the GPU rig, but again, I am not experienced enough yet to advocate for a particular GPU set up.

Therefore profit, which can change due to the price of cryptocurrency at any given moment, would be determined by comparing the hashrate to the operating cost.  Simple concept, sure.

 

 

Mostly I am starting this thread with the hopes that someone on here knows enough about cryptomining to be able to do the math, as well as poke any holes in my theory.  Essentially my main question is: for the price of a GPU rig, couldn't you just buy a metric crap ton of Raspberry Pi's, and which would actually be more profitable?  Lets discuss the pros and cons of each

[Airdragonz]

Yes you can buy a load of pi's and put them in a cluster, but the efficiency is much much less than a single GPU. Therefore hashrate will be less than a gpu and it'll be much more of a pain in the ass to set up

 

[knightslugger]

In today's cryptocurrency miner's reality, there is no such thing as "Less intense mining". You are either a powerhouse, or you are nothing.

[NelizMastr]

You're late to the party. Don't bother.

[scs_789]

40 minutes ago, Airdragonz said:

Yes you can buy a load of pi's and put them in a cluster, but the efficiency is much much less than a single GPU. Therefore hashrate will be less than a gpu and it'll be much more of a pain in the ass to set up

 

Of this I have no doubt.  I don't actually intend to create a Raspberry Pi mining rig, it is just a hypothetical.  Mostly I am interested in the cost of operating the Raspberry Pi's vs the GPU rig.

 

 

40 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

In today's cryptocurrency miner's reality, there is no such thing as "Less intense mining". You are either a powerhouse, or you are nothing.

Isnt this why pools exist?


 

 

39 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

You're late to the party. Don't bother.

Im not bothering, just speculating for the hell of it

[knightslugger]

9 minutes ago, scs_789 said:

Isnt this why pools exist?

i don't think you understand what proof of work is about.

 

your reward for helping to solve the block (if the pool finds it) is proportional to the amount of work you did to solve it.